Re:GE ESBWR (Score 2, Informative)

Actually, I am a nuclear engineer here... The BWR has a greater efficiency, but on the other hand, you get much more radiation dose, and you have issues with fuel moderation when you have 2 phase flow that gives us nuces a major headache. The PWR is much better on the safety/design side of things. The current generation of steam generators don't have the leaking issues that the previous ones have, so you don't have to plug them. And the vessel deterioration that happened at Davis-Besse was management stupidity, which is why they got their ass whooped for $28 Million. Most of the relevant engineers were going you need to check this. The latest generation of CANDU's do NOT run on natural uranium. They used slightly enriched uranium with the D2O moderator. You still have to enrich the uranium! The new Westinghouse designs IMHO kick ass. The AP-600 is a sweet piece of engineering, and the AP-1000 makes me drool. The reduction in machinery, in operating ease, and also in increased efficiency makes it one of the prime choices for new safe nuclear power plants. And the PWR is a mature technology. They have had 40+ years of operating experience to go from. I know that most of the new orders for nuclear power plants that are being thought of are thinking about using the AP-1000 design. The new smaller reactors, like the one that they are building up in Galena are great for out of the way environments, like a salt water desalination plant on the Mediterranean coast. Not for powering a massive urban grid like in New York, DC, whatever.